January Comedy Club had a packed house cheering with laughter

Posted on 27th January 2019

John Mann got straight down to business as MC of the Corn Hall’s comedy club, largely dispensing with audience interaction if favour of a very silly series of one-liners that had the audience nicely warmed up for a varied program that had a packed house cheering with laughter.

Experienced comic Steve Gribbin was up first and took the crowd by the scruff of the neck with a routine that was so close to the knuckle he had to repeatedly apologise for it. Making full use of his cheat stick to oil the wheels of his bedded-in routine, he proved to be an accomplished pro. The most intriguing act of the night, and for me the highlight, was Norwich based Nelson Gombakoma, whose extended routine on what it is like to be living in a prominently white county was clever, thought provoking and very funny. Craig Campbell followed up with a Canadian’s perspective of us Brits, who certainly knows how to dig deep into the wilder eccentricities of the British character.

It rounded off an evening that held up a mirror up to our strange ways, and invited the audience to laugh not only at the comics, but also themselves.

By David Vass